Carolyn discovered and fell in love with horticulture while she was volunteering through Americorps at the East Bay Conservation Corps in Oakland, California. At that time she had just earned her undergraduate degree in religion from Cornell University and was about to start working on her master’s degree from the Harvard Divinity School.

Once she relocated to the Boston area, Carolyn took a summer landscape maintenance job at A Yard & A Half. Fourteen years later, she helped the company transition to an employee-owned cooperative. Today, as Co-CEO, Carolyn is focused on the business operations of A Yard & A Half. She also loves to work with the team members to develop both their horticultural skills and their “soft skills” for career advancement. She wants to help each team member reach the next level of their journey with A Yard & A Half.

Carolyn is a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist, a graduate of UMass Green School, and a Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA)-Accredited Organic Landcare Professional. She has studied at the Landscape Institute, teaches design and site assessment courses for the Boston Master Urban Gardeners program and NOFA, and serves on the board of the Community Outreach Group on Design.

Carolyn is married to a housing advocate and they have two young sons.

“I’ve long been interested in the healing and healthy living aspects of horticulture. Between that and the social justice approach to developing our co-op into a multi-generational business, I feel like my work at A Yard & A Half is not just a job, but also my ministry.” — Carolyn